This invention relates to an apparatus and method of providing means for securing mail, or other items, in an organized, and easily identifiable order, in a Postal Tray, or other means, when the Postal Tray is not full, or, after some portion of the mail has been removed from the Postal Tray.
It has been customary for Postal Delivery personnel to organize the mail for their route, place it in a furnished Postal tray, and place the tray in the Postal delivery vehicle, within easy reach, and identification, and step by step, packet by packet, remove the mail in an organized manner, and deliver the mail for their route.
A problem soon develops in the Postal tray. As the mail is removed, and delivered from the front of the Postal tray, and during driving the Postal Vehicle, the mail slips from its intended position, lays flat on the bottom of the Postal tray, sometimes being mixed into an unorganized sequence, thereby causing the Postal Delivery person to spend several minutes reorganizing the mail each time a delivery to the next customer on the route is required.
Several approaches to solving this problem have been provided. Usually, each Postal delivery person uses some type of personal separator, carried in their individual Postal Delivery Vehicle, for their own use. These individual separators can be lost, left at home, or suffer some other mishap. Also, a new type of Postal Tray is being procured for these purposes, and, the new type is of a lighter weight, flexible side design, which does not conform to a typical separator. The older Postal Trays are still in use today, presenting a dual problem for the separation, and secure holding of the mail in these Postal Trays.
Several approaches to solving the problem of securing the mail in the Postal Trays have been provided. Reseda, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,643,306 teaches a completely new Postal Tray, equipped with individual tray dividers. The problem with this apparatus is that the mail is of many sizes, and types, and placing an opaque separator in a slot in the Postal Tray presented by Reseda, would be cumbersome at best, and restrict the visual identification of the mail by the Postal Delivery person.
Ikelheimer, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,491,909 teaches a method and apparatus of separating a tray, or, enclosure into individual compartments. Here again, the daily mail to be delivered does not conform to pre-measured quantities, and the type of separation provided by Ikelheimer would be very cumbersome, and time consuming.
Benoit, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,746,181 teaches a series of individual separators, each separator having a base portion, and the base portion of the separator being loaded with articles to keep it in place. This type of separator is designed for a static storage of articles, and is not designed for a constant changing of articles in the tray, as is present in the mail delivery system.